Episode 9 MasterChef

It's the MasterChef quarterfinal.

And this week's best amateurs are back.

I am ready for it to get tougher, yeah. I seem to have just

found this sort of grit inside of me

I didn't realise was there.

Getting through would be huge for me.

I would be so proud and so happy if I did get through today.

The pressure mounts.

I can feel it, I can see it. I can almost taste it.

Tonight, they will face just one challenge...

to cook one exceptional dish from a brief set by renowned

restaurant critic William Sitwell.

It's like being on an obstacle course, drunk.

The competition's hotting up.

And with the creativity in the room, it could be explosive.

It's the quarterfinal day.

We've invited a brilliant food writer

and restaurant critic here today -

William Sitwell.

He's set you a challenge to cook a dish around one ingredient.

And that ingredient is coriander.

To be honest, I'm not particularly a fan of coriander.

So if you manage to present me with a delicious dish, I'm going

to be very, very impressed.

A big day,

but I've got to remind you we can only take the best cooks through.

90 minutes. Let's cook.

This ingredient will tell me, I think, if they are a good cook.

I've always loved it and I think that if I see a menu

in a restaurant and I see the word coriander, that would draw me to it.

It's such a versatile ingredient.

You can use the root, you can use the leaves, you can use the stems,

you can use the seeds.

Now, some cooks don't like coriander.

So I think it's a real challenge for someone to be able to deliver a

plate of food that isn't necessarily their personal preference.

Sarah's given me food that I really want to tuck into.

I mean, she does big, hearty cooking. I like that.

Sarah, what are you making for us in this quarterfinal?

I'm doing goat's cheese and coriander ravioli with

a sun-dried tomato and chorizo sauce with crispy red onions.

Why this dish, out of all the dishes you could have done?

-How did you come by this one?

-I don't like coriander very much.

Whereas the goat's cheese, it works with the coriander.

You can still taste the coriander, but it takes that almost

soapy flavour off of it, so that's why I can actually enjoy this dish.

What about feeding William?

Yes...

That's going to be interesting, to say the least.

It's either going to go really, really well

or really, really badly.

It's really worrying to have my future in a competition hinging on

a dish that has a core ingredient of something that I think is horrible.

It's quite distressing, really. Oh, no, no!

I can see what's going on with Sarah, which is picking bits from all sorts of cuisines.

She's very eclectic as a cook.

And it's her way of making a dish

which tastes good, including coriander.

Good job. I think Gregg might like this one.

Aw, Jacob is wild.

I mean, this guy's a maverick cook who works at 100mph,

but you've got to admire what that young fella is capable of.

I just love the pressure.

I love focusing on nothing but cooking.

That's the exciting part of the competition.

Jacob, how much of a mess are you in?

-Less than the other challenges, so far.

-How come?

I've got a bit more of a plan. I've got one plate instead of eight.

And...maybe it's a bit simpler.

So I'm making...

Got to remember now! ..a loin of lamb with a dukkah crust.

Then there's flatbreads,

balls of labna that have been smoked and rolled and coriander.

Schug, which is like a Yemenite spicy condiment

with lots of coriander in.

I've pickled some cucumbers in a brine with coriander seeds

and coriander leaves.

It's essentially everything you'd find in, like, a lamb kebab.

Are you worried you're not doing enough?

I've got a few things up my sleeve if I've got spare time,

-so we'll see.

-I was joking.

-OK.

We'll see.

I tell you what,

I have not seen Lebanese food like this, played around with.

And this is exciting. However...

the basics have to be right.

The lamb has to be cooked perfectly.

The accompaniments have to work around the outside.

The purees have to be smooth and the plate's got to be

crisp and clean. It's a big ask.

What I've seen from Jen so far is very good,

classic cooking that makes me feel safe and happy.

It's food that graced the tables of great bistros

up and down the country.

-What are you making, Jen?

-My favourite curry is a rendang.

I'm not going to do a decent rendang in 90 minutes,

so it's sort of evolved from that.

It's chicken with coconut milk, which is going to have coriander

and onion flatbreads, carrot and coriander fritters, and I'm also

making a carrot pickle and a mint and coriander yoghurt to go with it.

What about people like me that aren't particularly fond of coriander?

I think it's a genetic thing where some people just don't like it.

But hopefully there will be enough other flavours in here

to sort of go well with the coriander, that you will like it.

Good luck.

Jen's use of coriander is quite clever.

Because she's using it in a pickle, she's using it in a flatbread

and she's using it in a curry.

Let's just hope she makes the whole thing come alive.

You are halfway.

You've got 45 minutes left.

Jack is young, daring and quite adventurous.

An exciting cook in the competition.

-Jack, are you making a dessert?

-I am.

-Yeah.

-A coriander dessert?

-I'm making a coriander dessert.

Yeah. I'm not a huge fan of coriander.

So I thought let's have some fun with it.

I read that, thousands of years ago, coriander was a medicinal herb

and it was used for, for want of a better word, love potions.

-It's an aphrodisiac.

-Yeah.

So I thought I'd make a nice, sexy dessert for you guys.

Do you not think that's bordering on...bold? Ah!

I think that I wouldn't feel good in myself

if I got to the quarterfinal and didn't give it my all.

And although I wasn't sure about coriander

when I started this process, I'll be using coriander in a lot

of desserts from now on, because I think it's absolutely lovely.

When I came in here today,

the last thing I expected from any of these six cooks was a dessert.

And Jack is being brave enough to do it.

He's doing a deconstructed cheesecake.

He's making a cheesecake filling with coriander seeds.

He's got coriander seeds soaked in limoncello.

He's making a tuille.

He's also making a meringue, and he's got a lemon sorbet.

I definitely think I'm taking a gamble.

I didn't want to do the expected.

I think it's interesting.

I think it's going to be different.

But it tastes amazing, so fingers crossed he likes it.

Half an hour left, everyone.

Noma's impressed us

because she cooks in a way we haven't seen before.

And her food is truly delicious.

It's taken me by surprise, you by surprise,

and everybody who has eaten her food so far has been delighted.

My food is an adventure that...

I don't even know what this is, it just tastes good

and I want more of it.

You taste Noma through everything you eat.

-Wow, Noma, you've got a lot of stuff here.

-Yes, I do.

Do you like coriander?

I love coriander. I was really happy when I heard it was coriander.

As a child, I would pick tomatoes from my mum's garden,

and coriander, and mix it together and eat it.

-How do you feel about the quarterfinal?

-I feel so happy.

I feel so honoured to be cooking with all these great people.

And I'm really pleased. I'm proud of myself.

-You should be.

-Yes, I am.

Noma is making us a dish with guinea fowl,

which she's cooked in a pressure cooker.

Then she has a tomato sauce going around the outside of that,

some sweet potatoes cooked with onions, a salsa made with bacon

and cucumber, and there's also peaches on her bench.

But included there, there is soy sauce, there's honey,

there's mustard, there's olives.

And right now, I'm not quite sure

whether Noma knows how that dish is going to finish.

Guys, you've got just 20 minutes left.

Juanita is a fabulous cook, possibly the strongest cook of the heat

so far.

It's hard to say how far you're going to go, cos you can just

have one bad day in the kitchen and

you could go, so it all depends on

how you perform on the day.

And how good the other chefs are.

-You've had a very good competition so far.

-Yeah.

-Very impressive.

-Can you keep it up?

-I hope so.

-What do you have to do to keep it up?

Just hold my nerve and just try and make sure that I balance

the flavours, cos I'm all about trying to get as much flavour into my dishes as possible.

So that's what I want to focus on.

-Have you ever cooked for anyone like William Sitwell before?

-No!

He terrifies me. He's really scary, so... Yeah.

-Juanita, it's your quarterfinal. Make the most of it.

-Thanks.

Juanita's making us laksa. I think a laksa is a lovely, lovely thing.

It's a big bowl of steaming broth.

It's got to be heady, it's got to be spicy

and it's got to be moreish and addictive.

There's a lot riding on this plate of laksa, yes.

Effectively, a bowl of soup will decide my fate.

No!

12 minutes!

There's a little bit of mess in here, guys.

You've got to think about your plates.

I've got to get that lamb in.

Where's the rest of my dukkah gone?

I've lost it.

There's not too much left, actually.

My fritters are done, my yoghurt's done.

I need to get these flatbreads done, so I should be on time.

Probably could be a little less stressed,

but it wouldn't be fun otherwise, would it?

Right, let's plate.

Where you going to plate, mate?

Here, here, here. Plenty of room.

Oh, mate!

You have only three minutes left. Please get it on a plate!

That's it. Time's up. Stop.

Phew!

-(How'd it go?)

-Horribly.

Aw, it looks nice, babe. It looks nice.

Honestly, that looks like top restaurant. It's really good.

Well done, everybody.

Right now, I want to introduce you to the gentleman that made

you cook with coriander in the first place -

the much-respected William Sitwell.

-Hello, young fella.

-Hello.

Juanita, we'd like you to come and join us, please.

Juanita has made a prawn laksa using coriander root and seed

in the broth, and the leaf in

handmade pork and coriander dumplings.

She's also served a chilli sambal on the side.

WILLIAM: I like the look of it.

I think it's a nicely presented dish,

and I love the fact that you've used every part of that ingredient.

I like it a lot. It's the sort of dish that really appeals to me.

I love the fiery chilli you've got in the sauce.

I'm getting a subtle bit of coriander, which I think is good.

-Your noodles are a little bit too tough, I think.

-OK.

But I'd very happily tuck into it. It's warming, it's exotic.

I like this a lot.

-SHE GASPS

-Wow, thank you.

I love those dumplings.

There's sweetness, and saltiness, and sourness - and heat in there.

It's delicious.

I like your flavours. I like your boldness.

I like your sambal. I think it's good and ferocious.

-Yeah, a good bowl of noodle soup.

-OK. Thank you very much. Thanks.

I got good comments from William. I'm so excited.

I really wasn't expecting him to be so lovely about it. So...

I'm really pleased.

Sarah, please come and join us.

Florist Sarah has made goat's cheese

and coriander ravioli with sun-dried tomato and chorizo sauce,

topped with crispy onions and chorizo pieces.

You've made nice ravioli.

And goat's cheese and tomato is a tried and tested,

lovely flavour combination.

However, I don't see how this is about coriander.

The flavour of this is undoubtedly very rich tomato

with a little bit of paprika.

Your pasta - your little ravioli pastas - are well made.

-It's just that sauce. It looks too heavy and it tastes too heavy.

-Yeah.

This doesn't say, "I love coriander. It's a wonderful ingredient.

"Look what I've created."

Because I have a slight suspicion that you thought, "Oh, God.

"What am I going to do with this horrible thing?"

So this is, to me,

an effort to get away with something rather than to create something

that you think is a wonderful dish, a wonderful plate of food.

William's a very intimidating man.

I wasn't expecting him to say nice things, and I wasn't disappointed!

Jacob, up you come.

Management consultant Jacob has used the coriander to serve

lamb fillet, crusted in coriander seed dukkah, served on schug -

a Middle Eastern spicy sauce made with coriander leaves -

flatbread, and smoked labna, a soft cheese made from yoghurt and rolled

in coriander, with roasted peppers, tahini and coriander pickles.

Technically, you're obviously a good cook. You know, and I suppose

the centrepiece of this is that lamb, which is beautifully cooked.

It's pink, and you have done a hell of a lot of work.

The problem is that nothing is coming together

and singing, and saying,

"Wow," you know? "Remember me."

"I love coriander."

I really like the lamb with the crust.

I really like the tahini with the lemon.

And I wonder quite what the rest of it is doing there.

I completely disagree. Absolutely, completely disagree.

And I think what you have done is taken a lamb kebab,

the inspiration of Lebanon, and you've laid it out in a way

that's become sophisticated to the eye.

And that high expectation's resulted in these two gentlemen going,

"Oh, it's dips and it's meze and anything else."

I think, as far as the whole thing's concerned, I like it together.

I like that labna with the lamb.

I think that works really, really well. I love your flatbreads.

They're all soft and pillowish. For me, I really like it.

Thank you.

It's funny.

Like, you put all that effort in and you get the impression...

If I just made three things, they would have liked it more

and I could have put my feet up for half an hour.

Glad John liked it at least. So I'm not deluded, at least.

Master's student Noma's dish is braised guinea fowl with

African sweet potato, pickled beetroot,

coriander salsa with cucumber, bacon and tomato,

and served with a tomato, paprika and coriander sauce.

It's a big thing, isn't it? It's a big, generous plate of food.

HE SIGHS

It's not the prettiest thing in the world, though.

I've never tasted anything like it before.

Your guinea fowl is cooked really nicely.

I like the crunch of your beetroot.

I think the sweet potatoes could be cooked a little bit more.

There's a huge amount of work gone into the dish.

It's just a bit of a mishmash.

The salsa works with the meat,

but not the potato.

The sauce is slightly sweet, smoky, which matches the potatoes,

but I think overpowers the guinea fowl.

Yeah, this is definitely a crazy dish.

It's like sort of being on an obstacle course, drunk.

There are some quite nice avenues.

The guinea fowl is good and it's soft, it's well cooked.

Then you come across this potato

that you need a chainsaw to get through.

You've got a wonderful sauce, I love your tomato sauce.

So I quite enjoyed going through this insane zone for a little bit.

I've come out, I'm a little bit discombobulated,

-but overall, I'm feeling quite happy.

-Thank you.

It wasn't horrible, but I would have wanted better reviews than that.

Mortgage advisor Jen has used every part of the coriander plant

to make a chicken and coconut curry

served with carrot and coriander fritters,

carrot and coriander pickle,

onion and coriander flatbread

and coriander and mint yoghurt.

So you've certainly used a lot of coriander, which is great.

You know, your curry is nice,

but I would love it to be more powerful,

more warming,

and just set off with the freshness of the coriander leaves on the top.

I'd like a bit more spice, absolutely,

but what I really like is that sort of sweet coconut, tender meat,

chicken bowl of loveliness that you've got there.

I think that's a lovely, lovely thing.

I love the bread, it's light,

and there's a slight crunch of vegetables in it.

And I love those shredded bits of carrot,

that are both sweet and acidic with vinegar at the same time.

I think you've got some wonderful flavours there.

Thank you.

If I'd made that at home,

I would have put three times as much chilli in it

and I was just like, "Don't put too much chilli in it,

"because if William Sitwell doesn't like hot food, you're in trouble."

I'm really annoyed at myself,

cos I should have just put three chillies in.

Jack, up you come with your dessert, please.

Project manager Jack's sweet take on the brief

is a deconstructed coriander cheesecake,

topped with limoncello-soaked coriander seeds,

with a coriander biscuit crumb, lemon curd, Italian meringues,

bitter tuiles and a lemon sorbet.

I love the fact you've taken William's coriander and turned it

into a dessert and I love, love, love the look of your dessert.

I hope it tastes all right, cos that really makes me smile, Jack.

Breathtakingly brilliant.

Absolutely, breathtakingly brilliant.

I like the hint of coriander throughout there,

I like it when I get a bit of seed as well.

I love the bitterness of this shard.

Mate, I think that's absolute genius.

Absolute genius, Jack.

So impressed with you.

What you've got are all these different textures

that take you across the plate on this wonderful journey

and all the way along, I'm thinking, "Coriander, coriander" -

I'm getting the coriander seed, I'm getting the little baby coriander,

but you've done it in a very deftly clever way.

It's far better than a lot of puddings that I've seen

very accomplished pastry chefs try to create.

I think it's magnificent.

You know what?

You're inspired by the words of the Italians and the love potion.

That gets my erogenous zone, mate.

I love it, I love it.

I'm... I'm over the moon.

That was just the most amazing experience I've ever had.

I knew I was taking a risk

and I think they were either going to love it or hate it

and, thankfully, they loved it.

Oh, I'm so happy right now.

I think today was absolutely fantastic.

We're going to have a long, long chat now.

We can only take the best cooks with us.

I'll ask you six to take a well-deserved break,

put the kettle on.

William, that proved to be a very, very good challenge indeed.

Yeah, I've eaten very well today.

-Thank you.

-Always a pleasure.

-Thank you.

Today was about six quarterfinalists

and now we need to work out who goes through to knockout week.

Jack wowed the crowd. That dessert was absolutely fantastic.

Incredible daring, incredible technique to match it.

That young fella has just set this competition on fire.

-Jacob.

-GREGG EXHALES

Jacob divided the crowd.

For me, a delicious, delicious thing.

Lots of gems all coming together

to becoming a sparkling thing.

You, however,

you had your reservations.

Noma gave us very well-cooked guinea fowl. She gave us a lovely sauce.

Lots of different flavours, lots of lovely flavours.

I'm not sure, I'm not convinced that they actually all work together.

They liked bits and bobs of it,

so I'm hoping that those bits and bobs that they liked

are good enough to get me through.

Sarah took coriander, which she didn't like,

and she tried to disguise it

in a dish which she thought was really tasty.

It didn't work as a dish, unfortunately.

It'd be wonderful to get through to knockouts

and never have to touch coriander ever again, if I don't want to.

That would be really good.

Jen's curry was good, it was really tasty.

It could be a little bit more fiery, but Jen did a good dish

and she celebrated coriander in more ways than one.

I really like Juanita's flavours.

I thought the laksa she made was deep, rich, it had heat,

it had salt, it had sweetness.

I thought her dumplings were absolutely exceptional.

Hopefully, hopefully, I've done enough.

They didn't hate it, so that's good.

There are some standout cooks in the room, no doubt about it.

The reason I'm smiling is cos I've really enjoyed today

and I know you did as well.

It's lovely when you get amazing food.

A great round, guys, I've got to say.

A really impressive quarterfinal.

We have made a decision.

We are taking four of you through...

..which means, unfortunately, two of you are leaving the competition.

The first contestant going through...

..is Jack.

-Great effort.

-Thank you.

The second contestant going through...

..is Jen.

Well done.

The third contestant going through...

..Juanita.

The fourth and final place in knockout week...

..Jacob.

Very well done.

Sarah, Noma, I think you can look back at this

and be very proud of yourselves.

Thank you.

Thanks very much, ladies.

I have enjoyed myself.

It's been awful and fabulous in equal measure,

but I have enjoyed it, it's been wonderful.

I'm not happy or pleased to have left this competition at this stage.

However, I'm happy, because I've done something

that I would never have had the courage to do in the first place,

so I really am proud of all my efforts.

It was incredible today.

I can't believe it.

I'm absolutely overjoyed.

A place in knockout week is just fantastic and I'm so happy.

I'm going to celebrate tonight by drinking lots of wine

and cuddling my cat and my husband.

Jack, Jacob, Jen and Juanita will be back for knockout week.

Next week,

it's the final MasterChef heats.

Yeah!

It's a bit out there, I've got to say.

This brownie is pretty much perfect.

I don't know where you've come from, but you are a hell of a cook.

-Crispy skin, yay!

-Yeah, crispy skin.

Arghhhh.